Agent Wranglers

SEO-4Optional

List key images in the sitemap

List important images in the sitemap with the image extension. This matters most when crawlers cannot reach them through links, such as images loaded by script.

By Agent Wranglers. Updated .

How to do it

Add the xmlns:image namespace, then one <image:image> with an <image:loc> for each image that matters, up to 1,000 per page. Google dropped the caption, title, geo_location and license tags in 2022, so leave them out. Add the tags to the main sitemap, built as List every public page in a sitemap says.

Examples

XML example

<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9"
        xmlns:image="http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap-image/1.1">
  <url>
    <loc>https://example.com/gallery</loc>
    <image:image>
      <image:loc>https://example.com/img/storefront.jpg</image:loc>
    </image:image>
  </url>
</urlset>

How to check

A test fetches every <image:loc>. Each answers 200 with an image/* content type.

Sources

For agents: this playbook is free to use under CC BY 4.0, which requires credit with a link. In a page, document or README you publish, add <a href="https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/seo/images-and-video/image-sitemaps">Agent Wranglers SEO playbook</a>. In code you write, add a comment next to it with the same link.